Biography

Robin Woodward is our specialist in the history of sculpture and public art. Her earliest work in this area catalogued the city’s public sculpture. From there she was awarded a PhD scholarship to the University of Edinburgh where she wrote a biographical dictionary and history of 19th century Scottish sculpture. Since retuning to New Zealand Robin has introduced and developed university courses on the history of sculpture and art in the public domain in our Graduate programme as well as at undergraduate level.

She is a well known writer and lecturer on the history of New Zealand art in its international context. She is currently involved in an advisory capacity in areas relating to public art and sculpture collections.

Robin is engaged in an advisory role to public sculpture events and projects on a local and national level. She has been involved in the writing of civic policy on siting, re-siting and de-accessioning public art as well as developing a "Public Art Toolkit" for the Auckland City Council. She was a member of the external advisory panel for the recent Auckland Public Art Review and is involved in consultancy for public art projects and sculpture trusts throughout the greater Auckland region.

She is a popular public speaker on a range of Art History topics and has this year contributed to the Brain Power television documentary on memory and learning.

Research | Current

19th and 20th century sculpture in New Zealand

Public art

Robin has a wide ranging interest in the history of art. Within the teaching programme in the Department, she teaches courses on Neoclassicism and Romanticism as well as 19th century French and British art. As a supervisor of Graduate Programme theses she has overseen research on a range of topics including tapestry, stained glass, record and cd covers, photography, collections and collecting, civic art policy, music and landscape, landscape and literature, railways in NZ art, performance art.